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Inside: Korean speedskater looks to end Dutch dominance.
GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA >> During resurfacing breaks at Gangneung Oval, Kleintje Pils, the unofficial official polka band of the Netherlands team, has entertained the crowds with an eclectic playlist.
Kleintje Pils, translated roughly to “Small Beers” in English, has rounded out their set with a raise-yourglass version of, what else, “We Are The Champions.”
There’s been a running debate at the Gangneung Oval: is the Netherlands too good for speed skating’s own good?
The Dutch have dominated the Olympic oval for yet another Games, winning six of seven gold medals so far, and 11 of 21 medals total. Or one more medal than all the other nations combined.
“It’s the world against Netherlands,” said Bob de Jong, the 2014 10,000-meter bronze medalist for the Big Orange machine.
It wasn’t until Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloeman won the 10,000 Thursday night that a Netherlands skater had not ended up on the top step of the podium at these Games.
The Dutch haul in South Korea is on pace to best their total four years ago in Sochi, where they won eight of 12 events.
“It was unbelievable how many medals we got and it’s not good for the sport,” said de Jong, whose 2014 bronze at 37 made him the oldest Olympic speed skating medalist in 86 years.
“It’s good to get medals from all over the world,” continued de Jong, who now coaches South Korea’s distance skaters.
Enter South Korea’s Lee Sang-hwa, who looks to end the Dutch bid to sweep the women’s races by winning her third consecutive 500-meter gold medal today.
Lee began skating as a small child with her older brother, Lee Sang-jun. But eventually their mother could afford to pay for the training of only one child, so Sang-jun gave up skating at 13 so his sister could continue.
The sacrifice paid off. Lee won her first Olympic title, taking the 500 in Vancouver, then defended the gold medal in Sochi, setting an Olympic record in the event at 37.28 seconds. In between, Lee set the world record of 36.3 in November 2013.
On a side note: A few weeks before the Sochi Games, Dutch LGBT groups approached Kleintje Pils about playing gay protest songs at the Olympics as a way of pushing back against anti-gay legislation passed by the Russian government.
You guessed it, the groups wanted the Kleintje Pils to play “YMCA.” The Small Beers agreed, but missed out on an obvious name change: the Olympic Village People.